Say When
by Magic Girl1996
Summary: Over the years, Alex and her dorky ex-stepbrother Justin have rarely gotten along. But when unforeseen circumstances have Justin moving in with the Russo's, their views of each other as simply former step-siblings begins to transform into something more.


She was almost positive that it had been a Tuesday- maybe a Wednesday. Either way, what day of the week it happened on didn't really matter; it didn't change anything.

Alex remembered how she had been six and eating a PB&J sandwich at the counter of the Waverly Sub Station when her mom came home. She'd just plucked Max out of daycare and looked completely exhausted.

"Mommyyy," she'd whined. "We need more jelly."

"Not now, _mija_." Theresa had said tiredly, massaging her temples. "Mommy has a headache." She had taken off Max's coat and dried the three-year old's wet hair with one of the spare towels (Had it been raining that day?). Then she'd taken a couple aspirin and went upstairs to take a nap.

The image of her mother walking up that spiral staircase was the last memory Alex had of her.

She only vaguely remembered the hospital waiting room. It'd been too white and had that sterile smell of antiseptic and bandages. She'd been watching Max sitting below her on the floor, tearing out a page of an old magazine, oblivious to what was happening, when her life changed forever. When her dad walked through the door, the first thing he did was scoop her and Max together in his arms. It wasn't until she had felt him shake slightly that she'd realized he was crying.

Most people hate hospitals, and Alex was one of them.

It'd taken years before she could actually pronounce the invisible thing that had stolen her mother away from them: _cerebral aneurysm_. The fact that the last thing she'd said to her mom had been about jelly was never too far away from her thoughts. When her mom had gone upstairs that afternoon, she'd left her dad behind with an entire business to run and two small kids. He was always worried about the lack of a positive, female role model in their lives.

Then came Maria.

She was a wizard, with long dark hair and deep, seemingly endless brown eyes. She'd just gotten out of a tumultuous relationship and even had her own child, an eight-year old boy from a, yet another, previous relationship.

At six-years-old, even Alex could see that she wasn't marriage material. Maria was impulsive, her mind always jumping from one thing to the other, but always losing interest quickly. She was also unpredictable. Some days she'd be so restless that it seemed as though she was about to burst out of her own skin, and on other days all she did was stay in bed, refusing to answer even when her dad would knock on the door, asking her what was the matter.

"But I don't_ like_ her," she'd sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her arm. They'd been in the back of the church, Alex in her lacey, itchy dress with the too-tight shoes- Jerry in his tux.

"She likes _you_ though, sweetie," her dad had tried, kneeling down to her height. "And what about Justin? You guys have fun playing together, right?"

Alex had barely managed to fight back the strong urge to stick out her tongue. Playing with Justin was like playing with your grandma- only geekier and with more alien dolls. The first time she had met him, he'd been clutching one of them to his chest in a death-grip.

She'd been the flower girl. Her fingers were only loosely grasping the basket handle, not caring whether she dropped it or not. Justin was standing besides her, looking very uncomfortable and fidgety in his small tux, holding the rings.

"Your dress is crooked," he'd pointed out to her.

"You're stupid." Her insults had not yet reached their prime.

The wedding march had started which meant that it was almost time for them to walk down the aisle. Justin had promptly thrown up all over the floor and they had to find another kid to be the ring bearer.

Alex had couldn't help but think: _lucky_.

It went without saying that the marriage didn't last long. It was barely a year later, with Alex's seventh birthday only a week away. It was way past her bedtime but sleep was impossible. The arguing always kept her awake. She heard the deeper sounds of her father's voice against the higher one of Maria's.

_"What am I doing wrong?"_

_"I'm suffocating…"_

Alex's room was right above the kitchen, so she could hear everything. She slid to the edge of the bed and hopped down onto the floor, then tiptoed down the hall. She cracked his door open just wide enough for her to slip in through. She saw the medium sized lump under the covers.

"Justin?"

Silence.

"_Justin_," she hissed harshly under her breath. He finally stirred, making the sheets rustle and he elicited a small, drowsy sigh as he woke up. She climbed up onto the foot of his bed. "They're doing it again." As he sat up, she saw that her stepbrother's eyes were puffy and he blinked several times in an attempt to dispel the remnants of sleep. His hair was all mussed up and he only made it worse by running his hand through it.

"Really?"

She nodded and hugged her knees to her chest, stretching her oversized t-shirt down to her bare feet, the armless sleeves hanging limp. "Tell me something happy."

Justin's eyebrows knitted together. "Can't think of anything." Silence settled between them and the sounds of the shouting were still distinguishable even in this room. In a rare moment, Alex's voice trembled a little on her next word.

"Please."

Justin bit his lip and it seemed as though he was thinking something over, debating it in his mind. He finally relented.

"Okay, but you can't tell _anyone_. It's a secret." He scooted closer to her on the mattress whispered dramatically, "I'm a wizard."

She giggled despite herself. "I didn't know you were funny."

"I'm serious," he frowned, clearly miffed that his climatic revelation had been ruined. He paused a moment before adding, "And so are you."

She was quiet for a few seconds before deciding to play along. "O-kay," she said incredulously. "Prove it."

Justin turned around and flipped over his pillow, retrieving a slender, wooden object. It was obvious that he'd been trying to seem mature and reverent about what he was going to do, but a goofy smile had broken out on his face. He twirled the stick a little, and a purple whisp of color swirled out from the tip of it. Alex watched, brown eyes large and unblinking, mouth opened in awe as the magic floated around her in a shimmery trail, rising up to the ceiling before disappearing into nothing. The room was silent for a while before Justin broke it.

"I don't know a lot of spells yet," he blurted out quickly, shifting self-consciously on the bed.

She spoke softly in a hushed voice, "That was pretty."

They could hear that the muffled yelling coming from downstairs was getting louder.

"I want to do that," Alex stated decisively. "Let me try."

"You can't."

"Why not?"

"Because you're not old enough for powers," he explained, his tone self-important and a little smug. "They usually come in when you're seven, so you have to wait one more week." She took her arms out from under her tent of a shirt and crossed them, pouting.

"That's too long."

He tucked his wand back under his pillow and smiled at her.

"It'll be worth it."

"""

_Eight and a half years later._

Today is a good day, Alex Russo thought to herself as she walked leisurely down a random sidewalk in Greenwich Village. The morning air was crisp and smelled lightly of cinnamon, dried yellow and orange leaves crunched under her black flats as she contentedly nursed her chocolate macchiato. It was a cool, slightly overcast Saturday in late October and there was nowhere in particular she had to be.

As if on cue, she felt her phone start to vibrate in her purse. Setting her drink on a nearby mailbox, she flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Alex, where are you?" The voice was all too familiar.

"What are you talking about?" she groaned, throwing her head back.

"Our wizard training started fifteen minutes ago," Justin told her, his breathing into the receiver making static noises. "I'd be running if I were you."

She hung up on him and began dragging her feet bitterly in the direction of Waverly. Her previously good mood instantly dampened once she walked through the door. The substation had its usual potency of deli meat and broken dreams. Dropping her bag in one of the booths, she headed towards the back of the restaurant, opening what appeared to be the freezer door.

Justin and Max were already seated at the table, pencils in hand. Jerry was standing next to the chalkboard and greeted her sarcastically. "Nice of you to join us, Alex. Take a seat."

After Maria had divorced Jerry, she'd immediately moved into her new boyfriend's apartment two blocks away, dragging a reluctant little Justin along with her. When that fling ended shortly thereafter, the boyfriend offered to move out and Maria and Justin had been living in it ever since.

Justin still came over regularly for magic lessons, something that his mother had consistently neglected paying attention to before they'd met Jerry. On many occasions though, he would just come over for no reason, walking home with her and Max after school or be sitting there on the couch when she got back from hanging out with Harper.

Alex made a disgusted face as she looked down at what was in front of her. There were three brown crumpled things set before each of them. "What is this?"

"Maybe if you'd bothered to come to the lesson on time you would already know," Jerry said agitatedly. "Okay, Max. Go."

Max's tongue was sticking out of his mouth as he made a jerky, stabbing motion at his brown thing with his wand. "Uh, _Aucto... flower._" The plant stayed brown and shriveled, if anything, it looked even more wilted.

"Looks like you didn't read the chapter for today, huh Max?" Jerry muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. "Justin, just go..."

Her ex-stepbrother's countenance was the epitome of concentration and focus as he waved his wand. "_Auctus flora_," he said clearly, pronouncing every syllable concisely. The flower seemed to glow rhythmically as life surged back into it. Its stem straightened, its petals flushed again with color.

"Great job, Justin!" Jerry said enthusiastically. "See, _that's_ what I'm talking about, guys-" he said to the other two. "Hey, stop that." Alex had been mimicking him behind his back. "I'm serious, you need to start preparing if you want to win that competition."

She and Max would eventually have to enter the wizard competition when they both became adults. Alex glanced down at Max's unchanged dead flower and snorted. "I don't think it'll be a problem."

"I don't get it," Justin said to Max, "If you actually did the reading every once in a while the competition wouldn't be a big deal."

"Easy for you to say," Max said enviously, his elbow propped up on the table, one fist supporting his head. "You _know_ you get to keep your powers."

Justin brightened cheerfully. "One of the many perks of being an only child."

"Alright, we're getting off track," Jerry said, checking his watch. "Alex, your turn."

"This'll be interesting." Justin mused, wearing that superior grin that Alex had never so desperately wanted to wipe off his face.

"Excuse me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He shrugged. "I just don't know if you can do it. It's an intermediate spell."

"Yes, I _can_," she spat back indignantly. Her wand made a whooshing sound as she swished it through the air. "_Auctus flamma_."

Wait a minute.

"HIT THE DECK!" Jerry shouted, pushing the down on the kids' shoulders as Alex's flower erupted in flames. He pointed at the bookcase, yelling frantically, "Fire extinguisher!"

Alex crawled underneath the table on her hands and knees, hating the fact that she was putting her outfit at possible risk, and grabbed the extinguisher, spraying it blindly in the direction of the fire.

Max was staring wide-eyed at the destroyed remains. "Awesome."

"I think that's it for today," Jerry said tiredly, one hand holding the left side of his chest.

An amused smirk played on Justin's face as he watched the smoke continue to rise up from the smoldering ash. "Is it possible for both of them to lose?"

Alex threw him a glare before squeezing the handle on the fire extinguisher at the embers a second time.

"Ha-ha."

"""

It was later that night and they'd just finished a late dinner. After a semi-routine occurrence of Alex and Justin squabbling, Jerry exhaled exasperatedly as he walked away to put his plate over to the dishwasher. "Just please remember next time, it's _flora_... not _flamma_."

Alex shoveled another giant spoonful of spaghetti into her mouth before saying disinterestedly, "Tomato, tom-ah-to."

Max suddenly brightened after glancing at the clock on the wall. "Ten minutes 'till nine! Almost time for _Frankenstein vs. Snakes vs. Dracula... Part II."_

"WHAT?" Justin panicked, also looking at the clock. "I need to go home," he said, slinging his backpack hurriedly over one shoulder. "Daniel gets mad when I'm back late."

"How are things…" Alex asked, distaste evident in her voice, "with _Daniel_..."

"Fine." Justin shrugged, not meeting her gaze. He felt her eyes bearing into him and he sighed, trying to think of a delicate way to phrase things. "Sometimes I just feel, like... in the way."

Alex knew that Justin was often the third wheel in his own home. With the exception of her dad, Maria's taste in men generally consisted of complete losers. And Daniel, her current live-in boyfriend, was the biggest loser of them all by far. He was also a mortal and knew nothing about the existence of a wizard world, meaning that Justin had to be extremely careful about practicing magic in his apartment. But just because Justin weirdly wanted to fit into the role of the perfect son didn't mean that the rest of them couldn't trash him.

"Does anyone else think that Daniel's face looks like a sea lion's?" Max asked in all-seriousness. "But not like the nice ones at Sea World. Like a fat one who is really nasty and wears too much cologne."

"Now, Max," Jerry pretended to scold him as he returned from the kitchen, "That's a horrible and rude thing to say." He stopped mid-step as though a realization had just occurred to him. "But it _does_ explain why I have the urge to feed him raw fish."

Alex could have sworn that she saw the faint beginnings of a reluctant smile flicker on Justin's face before vanishing quickly. "Yeah, well he's going to kill me if I come home late again, so see you later."

"Woah, woah," Alex saw her dad stop Justin by putting a hand on his shoulder. "Where are you going?"

"Um," he tried, "Home?"

"Justin," Jerry said, using his annoying-parenting voice . "We've been over this. It's fine with me if you stay over for dinner but I can't let you walk home by yourself this late at night." Justin opened his mouth to protest but Jerry interrupted him firmly. "It's not safe. Why don't you guys make some popcorn and watch the movie down here?"

They both jumped instinctively as the death-metal screaming that was a Tears of Blood song started blaring. Justin quickly fumbled through his pants pockets and found his cell phone. He noticed her staring. "Yep, new phone! Jealous?" he bragged, having to yell over the noise.

Alex shook her head truthfully. "Just surprised that someone would call you."

He made a face at her before answering. "Wazzuuuuuup. Oh," he said sheepishly, embarrassed. "Hey, mom."

She rolled her eyes and headed to the hallway. "Max get the popcorn. I'll be in the bathroom."

Five minutes later, she came back to find Justin sitting on the couch motionlessly, oddly silent. He was looking down at his hands which were still holding his phone.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked him. "Did the school burn down?" She laughed flatly at her own joke.

"No," he said slowly. He raised his head to look her in the eyes. His were glassy now and she saw how pale his face had become. "I'm moving."


End file.
